Arsenal face a fight to sign Moises Caicedo before the January transfer window closes next Tuesday, with Brighton determined to hold onto the player.
The Gunners want to bring in a new midfielder before the deadline due to concerns around the fitness of Mohamed Elneny, who has been out since the middle of the month with a knee injury.
It is unclear when Elneny will return and Arsenal are interested in signing Caicedo as competition for Thomas Partey as they bid to maintain their Premier League title charge.
Brighton, however, are determined to keep hold of Caicedo this month and are under no financial pressure to sell after banking £26million by sending Leandro Trossard to Arsenal last week.
Caicedo has also publicly said that he is happy at Brighton and the club would demand a record fee for his services, greater than the £62m Chelsea paid for Marc Cucurella in the summer and possibly in the region of £75m.
That has already put off Chelsea, who are interested in Caicedo but are looking at other targets such as Everton’s Amadou Onana and Matheus Nunes, of Wolves.
